Colonial census - a transportation to 1828

September 17, 2007 — 10.00am

There were Anglicans and Catholics, as you'd expect. Quakers, Methodists and Baptists. There were Jews and Hindus - and even 10 "Mohammedans", or Muslims. But unlike today, no one in Australia's first official census, in November 1828, listed their religion as Jedi.

This month, for the first time, anyone with a computer can see the 1828 census of NSW online. And what is particularly interesting, said Brad Argent, spokesman for Ancestry.com.au, is just how multi-cultural a society we were 180 years ago.

"We take for granted that we live in a culturally diverse society - but that happened very early on," he said. "In 1828 you had all these different religions, yet people seem to be living in a reasonable degree of harmony in very tough conditions."

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The idea of a census was nothing new in the 19th century. The ancient Babylonians are believed to have carried out the first census in 3800BC. A census was needed in 1828 because free settlers had ignored the previous musters that had been ordered by a succession of governors trying to plan ahead. "They realised the governors couldn't compel them to attend, so they just weren't turning up," Mr Argent said.

In frustration, an act of Parliament, ordering the first compulsory census, was passed in 1827. The following year, census takers were dispatched the length and breadth of NSW - which in those days included Victoria and Queensland.

Mr Argent said the census process "wasn't dissimilar" to how it is done today, though fewer people could read and write. "Individuals were appointed to go out and visit each household, helping them to fill in the census details," he said. "Some researchers are currently comparing the original household returns and finding inconsistencies between answers on the returns and what ended up in the census. Protestants were listed as Catholics and vice versa."

Was it error, or duplicity? "It wouldn't surprise me if supporters of each religion tried to artificially inflate the figures," he said. Eventually two copies of the 1828 census were made. A seven-volume working draft was sent to London, and a six-volume clean copy was kept in Sydney. "The Australian version seems to have less errors in it," Mr Argent said.

In 1903 the Australian version was passed to the registrar general and placed in a locked box. For the next 60 years, the key was jealously guarded, passed from one registrar to the next - "most like the Da Vinci Code", Mr Argent said. It is thought that certain prominent Australians were sensitive about details of their convict ancestry becoming known publicly.

Since the 1970s, the 1828 census has been available for general inspection at the State Archives of NSW, but it has been a laborious process for family history researchers finding the details they want.

Now Ancestry.com.au has put the London version on its website on a free 14-day trial. It also hopes to publish the Sydney version.

The key details of the census are:

■ Indigenous people were not included.

■ The white population in 1828 was 36,598: 20,870 were free and 15,728 were convicts.

■ Twenty-four per cent of the population was born in the colony.

■ It was a masculine society, with 75 per cent male and 25 per cent female.

■ Most of the population (69 per cent) described themselves as Protestant, with 30 per cent listed as Catholic.

Of those who listed their religion as something other than Christian, there were 94 Jews, 10 "Mohammedans", three "Malays", one Hindu and three pagans.

The Hindu, Ramdial, was a stockman who came as a free man aboard the Mary in 1818. According to the census he was 40 and worked for a William Browne at Cabramatta.

Most of the Muslims were members of one family, the Woodens, who lived in Clarence Street in Sydney. All had arrived on the Kangaroo in 1816, with the patriarch one William Wooden, who had been transported for life before being pardoned before 1828. Little is known about him, or how he became a Muslim, but he became a wealthy man. The census lists that he had two servants, one Catholic, one Protestant.

Another Muslim, Abraham Cullen, arrived on the Frederick in 1817 after receiving a life sentence. By the time of the census he was classed as freed by servitude. He was working for George Taylor, a shoemaker in Evan, NSW.

Genealogy buff's treasure

PREVIOUS attempts to count the number of white people living on the Australian mainland were fatally compromised because military personnel were excluded from the musters, and free settlers could not be legally compelled to attend.

Consequently, the population was greatly undercounted.

Hence the need to pass an act of Parliament on July 29, 1827, compelling all inhabitants of the colony, convict or free, to be recorded.

When the 1828 census was completed it recorded that 36,598 men, women and children lived in NSW (not counting the indigenous population, of course).

At the time about 630 of those were living in what is now Queensland. The census also recorded:

- The name and age of the person

- Whether they were free or bonded

- The name of the ship on which they arrived, and the date they arrived

- The sentence they had been given if they were convicts

- Their religion

- Employment status

- Where they lived and in which district

- The total number of acres they owned

- The number of acres they had cleared or cultivated

- The number of horses, horned cattle and sheep they owned.

Such a wealth of information explains why the census is regarded as such a primary source for genealogists.

The first national census was held in 1911. By then the overwhelming majority of Australians had been born in the country (77 per cent of the population), followed by England (10 per cent) and Ireland (5 per cent).

Since then censuses have been held in 1921, 1933, 1947, 1954, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and last year.